The History of Light, which was performed in repertory at Shepherd University's Contemporary American Arts Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, during the summer of 2009, is based on the interesting premise that Soph, a young singer, begins receiving stacks of old letters from her black father's white college lover. This event is interlaced with the fact that her father abandoned the family when she was a baby and has not been heard from since.
Along comes Math, an old pal from Soph's school days, now a geek businessman whose structured life contrasts with her own free-spirited but challenging career. The play unfolds from there, exploring romantic and familial relationships through letters, flashbacks, and a stormy but eventually satisfying reunion with Soph and her dad.
The question of race in love relationships is handled in two ways in this play. It becomes clear that race was an absolute societal barrier to Soph's dad and his lover Suze and much more crushing than they could be expected to handle as young idealists. However, forty years later, their difference in race is not necessarily an insurmountable barrier for Soph and Math. Thankfully, race is less important for their story than how they explore the relationship between themselves as individuals.
The History of Light: The Playwright
Eisa Davis writes plays, composes music, and acts on stage, TV, and film.
She wrote and starred in the off-Broadway stage memoir Angela's Mixtape, directed by Liesl Tommy, and she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Bulrusher, published by Samuel French. Other plays include Paper Armor, Umkovu, Six Minutes, Warriors Don't Cry, and Hip Hop Anansi at Imagination Stage.
As a singer-songwriter, her album Something Else is available through iTunes, CDBaby, and Sandfish Records in Japan, and she performs her original music at venues including Joe's Pub, BAMCafé, and Symphony Space. She also composed the piano music used in her play The History of Light.
As an actor, Davis's recent work includes an Obie Award-winning performance in the Broadway rock musical Passing Strange, now a film directed by Spike Lee. Davis is also featured in the films Welcome to the Rileys opposite James Gandolfini (upcoming), Robot Stories, The Architect, Confess, Happenstance, Pretty Bird, Apparition of the Eternal Church, and Brass Tacks. She was Bubbles' sister on The Wire, is a repeat offender on the Law and Order franchise, appeared on Damages this season, and will appear in the new play This at Playwrights Horizons in the fall.
Davis is a winner of the Helen Merrill Award, the Whitfield Cook Award, and has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, the Van Lier, and Mellon Foundations. She will complete her residency at New Dramatists this fall.
The History of Light: The Production
The play takes place on a simple set with two playground swings and a grand piano on opposite sides. Hanging above the stage are light bulbs and glass documents with text etched on them. About the set, Frederick (MD) News-Post staff reporter Lauren LaRocca observed (July 16, 2009), "Also on the stage are fragments of Soph's own imagination, where present jumbles with the past and her love life meshes with that of the father she never knew."
The piano plays an important role. In an interview with the playwright for the program notes by Sandy Sponaugle and Jennifer Jensen, Davis says, "The fifth character in the play, as our director Liesl says, is the piano. I grew up playing classical piano and singing, and have felt firsthand since my youth how a few notes of Beethoven or Schumann or Debussy can just transport you. This sort of magic made me want to make something like that (I wrote the songs Soph sings in the play), to become an artist in general."
The History of Light runs 2 hours, with one 10-minute intermission.
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